Splitting group charges

ABSTRACT

A system, method, and article of manufacture for splitting a shared financial obligation is disclosed. The method may comprise receiving, by a bill splitting computer-based system, a single record of charge (ROC) associated with a purchase by one or more members of a group, and splitting, by the bill splitting computer-based system, the ROC between the members of the group.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit ofco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/628,320, filed Jun. 20,2017, entitled “SPLITTING GROUP CHARGES,” which is a continuation ofU.S. Patent application Ser. No. 14/258,999, filed Apr. 22, 2014, nowU.S. Pat. No. 9,710,801, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CHARGESPLITTING”, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentireties.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to payment settlement, and morespecifically, to methods and systems for settling payments associatedwith a group.

BACKGROUND

A group of people may wish to distribute payment of a debt between eachmember of the group. For example, where a group of friends plans a visitto a movie theater, a first member of the group may pay a taxi fare,while a second member may pay for movie tickets. Similarly, a thirdmember may pay for a meal consumed as part of the activity. Althougheach member may contribute monetarily to such a group activity, quiteoften, the amounts contributed by each member are not equal. Similarly,a group of individuals may share a financial obligation, although asingle individual may make a single payment towards the obligation,leading to an obligation by members of the group to contribute towardsthe shared obligation. Thus, systems and methods for settling paymentbetween a plurality of group members are desirable.

SUMMARY

A system and method for splitting a shared financial obligation isdisclosed. The method may comprise receiving (by a bill splittingcomputer-based system) a single record of charge (ROC) associated with apurchase by members of a group, and splitting the ROC between themembers of the group.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings. The left-most digit of a reference numberidentifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

FIG. 1 illustrates, in accordance with various embodiments, a system forsettling a group payment; and

FIG. 2 illustrates, in accordance with various embodiments, a processfor settling a group payment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure generally relates to payment settlement, and moreparticularly to payment settlement between a plurality of group members.The detailed description of various embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings, which show the exemplary embodiments byway of illustration. While these exemplary embodiments are described insufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice thedisclosure, it should be understood that other embodiments may berealized and that logical and mechanical changes may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, thedetailed description herein is presented for purposes of illustrationonly and not of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of themethod or process descriptions may be executed in any order and are notlimited to the order presented. Moreover, any of the functions or stepsmay be outsourced to or performed by one or more third parties.Furthermore, any reference to singular includes plural embodiments, andany reference to more than one component may include a singularembodiment.

The phrases consumer, customer, user, account holder, account affiliate,cardmember, member, group member, or the like may be usedinterchangeably and shall include any person, group, entity, business,organization, business, software, hardware, machine and/or combinationof these, and may, in various embodiments, be associated with atransaction account, buy merchant offerings offered by one or moremerchants using the account and/or be legally designated for performingtransactions on the account, regardless of whether a physical card isassociated with the account. For example, a consumer or accountaffiliate may include a transaction account owner, a transaction accountuser, an account affiliate, a child account user, a subsidiary accountuser, a beneficiary of an account, a custodian of an account, and/or anyother person or entity affiliated or associated with a transactionaccount.

A bank may be part of the systems described herein, and the bank may, invarious embodiments, represent other types of card issuing institutions,such as credit card companies, card sponsoring companies, or third partyissuers under contract with financial institutions. It is further notedthat other participants may be involved in some phases of a transaction,such as an intermediary settlement institution.

As used herein. terms such as “transmit,” “communicate” and/or “deliver”may include sending electronic data from one system component to anotherover a network connection. Additionally, as used herein, “data” mayinclude information such as commands, queries, files, data for storage,and the like in digital or any other form.

As used herein, terms such as “transaction” may include one or moreapproved authorizations. Moreover, as used herein, the phrase“transaction data” may comprise data associated with one or moretransactions. In various embodiments, an authorization may be approvedby a payment processor in response to a transaction request, which maybe initiated by a consumer and/or a merchant.

Phrases and terms similar to “account,” “transaction account,”“account,” “account number,” “account code,” and/or “consumer account”may include any account that may be used to facilitate a financialtransaction. These accounts may include any device, code (e.g., one ormore of an authorization/access code, personal identification number(“PIN”), Internet code, other identification code, and/or the like),number, letter, symbol, digital certificate, smart chip, digital signal,analog signal, biometric or other identifier/indicia suitably configuredto allow the consumer to access, interact with or communicate with thesystem. The account number may optionally be located on or associatedwith a rewards account, charge account, credit account, debit account,prepaid account, mobile account, mobile wallet, telephone card, embossedcard, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card, transponder,radio frequency card or an associated account.

A record of charge (or “ROC”) may comprise a unique identifierassociated with a transaction. A transaction may, in variousembodiments, be performed by a one or more members using a transactionaccount, such as a transaction account associated with a gift card, adebit card, a credit card, and the like. A ROC may, in addition, containdetails such as location, merchant name or identifier, transactionamount, transaction date, account number, account security pin or code,account expiry date, and the like for the transaction.

In various embodiments, a variety of charge splitting methodologies maybe implemented together with and/or apart from the methods and systemsdescribed herein. For example, methodologies and systems may beimplemented such as those described in U.S. application Ser. No.13/652,906, filed Oct. 16, 2012 and entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FORPAYMENT SETTLEMENT, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety byreference.

With reference to FIG. 1, a system 100 configured to settle or split apayment between one or more individuals or members of a group is shown.As discussed herein, each member of a group may comprise an individualand/or a plurality of individuals, each associated with a uniquetransaction account. Each member of a group may be further associatedwith a shared financial obligation, as for example, an obligationincurred as a result of a shared transaction. A system 100 may include aweb-client 102, a network 104, a payment processor 106, and/or a pointof sale terminal (“POS”) 108.

The payment processor 106 may be deployed in various configurations,including for example, as a backend processing module, a middlewaremodule, or a hosted application. The payment processor 106 may bedeployed by, for example, a card issuer, a banking service provider, athird party service provider or the like. In some embodiments, thepayment processor 106 may be hosted on one or more servers of the cardissuer or banking service provider. One or more web-clients, such asweb-client 102, may communicate with the payment processor 106 viacommunication network 104. In various embodiments, the payment processor106 may be hosted as an application service on a remote server of asoftware-as-a-service provider and/or deployed on a web-client 102 asapplication software.

A payment processor 106 may be configured to create a group of one ormore transaction accounts having a shared financial obligation. Further,in various embodiments, a group of individuals associated with a commontransaction account may be created. For instance, a group comprising amarried couple who share a common transaction account, but who each usean individual transaction instrument, may be created. In addition, invarious embodiments, the transaction accounts may be associated with oneor more members of the group that own the transaction accounts. Further,a group may be created in response to a transaction and/or a sharedfinancial obligation. For example, a group may be created and associatedwith roommates sharing an accommodation, friends, family members,colleagues, acquaintances going for a holiday together, and so forth.Further, in various embodiments, a group may be associated with a label.For example, a group may be labeled “work buddies,” “family,” and thelike.

In addition, the payment processor 106 may create a group. The group maybe created, for example, in response to authentication of thetransaction accounts having a shared financial obligation and/or amember of the group selecting, from a list or the like, membersassociated with a shared financial obligation. The payment processor 106may match identification and/or authentication data provided by themembers with the identification and/or authentication data associatedwith each transaction account. The authentication data may include forexample, a username, a password, a unique identifier, a transactionaccount number, a date of birth, a card expiry date, a card issue date,biometric information, swiping a card associated with the transactionaccount using suitable hardware (for example, a universal serial bus(USB) card reader), using NFC or scanning the card on an opticalcharacter recognition (OCR) enabled device or simply connecting to thepayment processor 106 using a registered mobile device, or anycombination thereof. The authentication data associated with each membermay be stored in a local database or a remote database, as describedherein. Thus, the payment processor 106 may facilitate paymentsettlement between one or more members.

The payment processor 106 may further create a group in response to agroup initiation event performed by a group initiator. A group initiatormay be any member of a group, including a member who places a grouptransaction (e.g., a meal fora group and/or the like) on the initiator'stransaction instrument. A group initiation event may be, for example, arequest for group creation, including information desired for groupcreation. A request may include at least one of a list of members towhom an invitation is to be sent, an address (e.g., an email address)associated with one or more listed group members, a telephone numberassociated with a web-client of one or more group members, etc. Forexample, with continuing reference to FIG. 1, a group initiator maycommunicate an invitation to join a group for payment settlement by wayof a plurality of web-clients 102 to each member owing towards afinancial obligation. Such communication may be accomplished in manyways, such for example, by using a telephone number, transaction accountnumber, email address and/or any other unique identifier associated witha group member.

Accordingly, payment processor 106 may be configured to settle one ormore of a plurality of ROCs corresponding to a shared financialobligation between a plurality of transaction accounts in a group. Tothis end, the payment processor 106 may, in various embodiments, receivea ROC and/or store the ROC as part of a transaction history associatedwith the group members in a database coupled to or comprising thepayment processor 106. The payment processor 106 may also receive anindication that one or more of the plurality of ROCs is subject to theshared financial obligation between the plurality of transactionaccounts in the group.

In addition, the payment processor 106 may determine or calculate asettlement amount. In various embodiments, the payment processor 106 maycalculate a settlement (or cost splitting) amount based on variousfactors, such as for example, in response to input from one or moremembers, based on an algorithm, based upon one or more member profiles,based upon previous payments of one or more members, based upon previousobligations of one or more members, based on the historical actions ofmembers, based on trends of members, based on a certain percentage orproportion, the purpose of the event or transaction (e.g., business orpersonal) and/or based upon a total financial obligation owed by agroup. The settlement calculation may also take into consideration otherfactors, such as for example, one or more members providing past,present or future donations to charities, the status of certain members(e.g., if a member is a guest of another member, one or more membersincluded children at the event), frequency of participation at an event(e.g., first-timers pay less), etc.

In various embodiments, a settlement amount may include an amount owedto and/or an amount owed by one or more group members toward a sharedfinancial obligation. Certain members may not owe anything or only owe anon-proportional amount. A member input may comprise a proportion ordivision of the shared financial obligation among the group members.Thus, in various embodiments, payment processor 106 may calculate asettlement amount based on received member inputs, such as a proportionor division of a shared financial obligation owed by each group member,from any of the group members (including a group initiator, if any).

Moreover, in various embodiments, the payment processor 106 maycalculate a settlement amount based upon a total shared financialobligation. For example, the payment processor 106 may calculate asettlement amount by dividing an amount of a total financial obligationby a number of members of a group. Accordingly, in various embodiments,each member may owe a settlement amount comprising the member's pro ratashare toward to the obligation.

The payment processor 106 may communicate (or notify a member of) asettlement amount to one or more group members via any communicationmeans discussed herein or otherwise known in the art. Further, thepayment processor 106 may recalculate a settlement amount in response toany of the factors discussed herein, an indication or member input fromone or more group members that a calculated settlement amount is notacceptable. In various embodiments, an indication may comprise amodified proportion owed by one or more group members toward the sharedfinancial obligation. In various embodiments, the payment processor 106may calculate and/or recalculate a settlement amount until all or acertain portion of members of a group accept their respective settlementamounts (which may be the same or different, as discussed herein,depending upon the method by which the settlement amount is calculated).

The payment processor 106 may transfer the accepted settlement amountamong each of the transaction accounts in the group. In one embodiment,the payment processor 106 may transfer the accepted settlement amountamong each of the transaction accounts in the group immediately orduring any time period. In various embodiments, the payment processor106 may transfer the accepted settlement amount among each of thetransaction accounts in the group at a predefined time. The predefinedtime may be a default time set in the payment processor 106, or may bedefined by a group initiator or any other member of the group. Thetransfer may be dependent on the transaction data, the time of thetransaction, the type of the transaction, the number of transactions,the historical actions of members, trends of members and/or the like.

Phrases similar to a “payment processor” may also include a company(e.g., a third party) appointed (e.g., by a merchant) to handletransactions. A payment processor may include an issuer, acquirer,authorizer and/or any other system or entity involved in the transactionprocess. Payment processors may be broken down into two types: front-endand back-end. Front-end payment processors have connections to varioustransaction accounts and supply authorization and settlement services tothe merchant banks' merchants. Back-end payment processors acceptsettlements from front-end payment processors and, via The FederalReserve Bank, move money from an issuing bank to the merchant bank. Inan operation that will usually take a few seconds, the payment processorwill both check the details received by forwarding the details to therespective account's issuing bank or card association for verification,and may carry out a series of anti-fraud measures against thetransaction. Additional parameters, including the account's country ofissue and its previous payment history, may be used to gauge theprobability of the transaction being approved. In response to thepayment processor receiving confirmation that the transaction accountdetails have been verified, the information may be relayed back to themerchant, who will then complete the payment transaction. In response tothe verification being denied, the payment processor relays theinformation to the merchant, who may then decline the transaction.

A web-client 102 may include any device (e.g., a personal computer, amobile communications device, tablet, and the like) which communicatesvia any network, for example such as those discussed herein. Further aweb-client 102, may include, a MICROSOFT SURFACE table, SAMSUNG SUR40with MICROSOFT PIXELSENSE, an ASUS TRANFORMER PAD, an EEE PADTRANSFORMER PRIME, and the like. Furthermore, web-clients 104-110 may bein a home or business environment with access to a network. In anexemplary embodiment, access to the network or the Internet may bethrough a web-browser software package.

A web-client 102 may include one or more browsers or browserapplications and/or application programs, including browser applicationscomprising Internet browsing software installed within a computing unitor a system to conduct online transactions and/or communications. Forexample, in various embodiments, a web-client 102 may include (and run)MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER, MOZILLA FIREFOX, GOOGLE CHROME, APPLESAFARI, and/or any software package available for browsing the Internet.Further, in various embodiments, a web-client 102 may include an AMEXmobile application.

A computing unit or system may take the form of a computer or set ofcomputers, although other types of computing units or systems may beused, including tablets, laptops, notebooks, hand held computers,personal digital assistants, cellular phones, smart phones, set-topboxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers,mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets ofcomputers, personal computers, such as IPADs, IMACs, and MACBOOKS,kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS) devices and/or terminals,televisions, GPS receivers, in-dash vehicle displays, and/or any otherdevice capable of receiving data over a network. The computing unit ofthe web-client 102 may be further equipped with an Internet browserconnected to the Internet or an intranet using standard dial-up, cable,DSL or any other Internet protocol known in the art. Transactionsoriginating at a web-client 102 may pass through a firewall in order toprevent unauthorized access from users of other networks. Further,additional firewalls may be deployed between the varying components ofsystem 100 to further enhance security.

In various embodiments, a web-client 102 may or may not be in directcontact with an application server. For example, a web-client 102 mayaccess the services of an application server through another serverand/or hardware component, which may have a direct or indirectconnection to an Internet server. For example, a web-client 102 maycommunicate with an application server via a load balancer and/or a webserver. In an exemplary embodiment, access is through a network or theInternet through a commercially-available web-browser software package.

A web-client 102 may further include an operating system (e.g., WINDOWSNT/95/98/2000/XP/VISTA/7/8/CE/MOBILE/RT/PHONE, 0S2, UNIX, Linux,SOLARIS, MACOS, PALMOS, SYMBIAN, ANDRIOD, IOS, BLACKBERRY OS, WEBOS,BADA, etc.) as well as various conventional support software and driverstypically associated with computers. A web-client 102 may be in a homeor business environment with access to a network. A web-client 102 mayimplement security protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) andTransport Layer Security (TLS). A web-client 102 may further implementseveral application layer protocols including http, https, ftp, andsftp.

The payment processor 106 may communicate with a plurality ofweb-clients (e.g., web-client 102) over communication network 104. Thenetwork 104 may include any electronic communications system or methodwhich incorporates hardware and/or software components (e.g. a “cloud”or “cloud computing” system, as described herein). Communication amongparties via network 104 may be accomplished through any suitablecommunication channels, such as, for example, a telephone network, anextranet, an intranet, Internet, point of interaction device (e.g.,point of sale device, web-client, personal digital assistant, (PHONE,PALM PILOT, BLACKBERRY cellular phone, kiosk, tablet, table, etc.),online communications, satellite communications, off-linecommunications, wireless communications, transponder communications,local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), virtual privatenetwork (VPN), networked or linked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or anysuitable communication or data input modality. Moreover, although thesystem 100 is frequently described herein as being implemented withTCP/IP communications protocols, the system may also be implementedusing IPX, APPLETALK, IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g.IPsec, SSH), or any number of existing or future protocols. If network104 is in the nature of a public network, such as the Internet, it maybe advantageous to presume network 104 to be insecure and open toeavesdroppers. Specific information related to the protocols, standards,and application software utilized in connection with the Internet isgenerally known to those skilled in the art and, as such, need not bedetailed herein. See, for example, Dilip Naik, Internet Standards andProtocols (1998); Java 2 Complete, various authors, (Sybex 1999);Deborah Ray and Eric Ray, Mastering HTML 4.0 (1997); and Loshin, TCP/IPClearly Explained (1997) and David Gourley and Brian Totty, HTTP, TheDefinitive Guide (2002), the contents of which are hereby incorporatedby reference.

The various system components may be independently and separately orcollectively suitably coupled to network 104 via data links whichinclude, for example, a connection to an Internet Service Provider (ISP)over the local loop as is typically used in connection with standardmodem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., Gilbert Held, Understanding Data Communications (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that network 104 may beimplemented variously, such as, for example, as an interactivetelevision (ITV) network. Moreover, this disclosure contemplates theuse, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

As used herein, a “cloud” or “cloud computing” may describe a model forenabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool ofconfigurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage,applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and releasedwith minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Cloudcomputing may include location-independent computing, whereby sharedservers provide resources, software, and data to computers and otherdevices on demand. For more information regarding cloud computing, seethe NIST's (National Institute of Standards and Technology) definitionof cloud computing athttp://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf (lastvisited June 2012), which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

Examples of communication network 104 may include a wide area network(WAN), a local area network (LAN), an Ethernet, Internet, an Intranet, acellular network, a satellite network, Public Switched Telephony Network(PSTN), and/or any other suitable network for transmitting informationas described herein. Communication network 104 may be implemented as awired network, or a wireless network, and/or a combination thereof.

Any database coupled to the payment processor 106 may include anyhardware and/or software suitably configured to facilitate storinginformation as described herein. One skilled in the art will appreciatethat any databases discussed herein may be any type of database, such asrelational, hierarchical, graphical, object-oriented, and/or otherdatabase configurations. Common database products that may be used toimplement the databases include DB2 by IBM, various database productsavailable from ORACLE Corporation, MICROSOFT ACCESS or MICROSOFT SQLSERVER, and/or any other suitable database product.

In various embodiments, a database (not shown) may comprise a temporaryand/or permanent database. The data comprising a temporary database maybe deleted or otherwise eliminated on a periodic basis and/or inresponse to an event. For instance, a database may comprise a ROCsdatabase and/or a shared financial transaction database. A ROCs databasemay store one or more ROCs and/or other transaction data. For example,as discussed below, a ROCs database may store such information inresponse to an authentication by an individual or group member, asdiscussed herein, to a system 100. A shared financial transactiondatabase may, similarly, store one or more ROCs and/or other transactiondata. A shared financial transaction database may further store a numberof members, a group associated with a member, a member identifier, ROCinformation associated with a member (e.g., a date of a ROC, a subjectof a ROC, an amount of a ROC), an amount a member owes toward a sharedfinancial obligation and/or is owed toward the same, and the like. Inaddition, a shared financial transaction database may store informationrelated to those transactions or ROCs which a group member selects forcontribution to a shared financial obligation. A database may reside ona backend system (e.g., as part of system 100) and/or as part of aweb-client 102. In various embodiments, a database (and/or its contents)may be deleted in response to a completed settlement. Thus, a member'sROC data may be loaded to a database for settlement purposes, butdeleted thereafter to preserve the fidelity and security of the member'sROC data.

Referring broadly now to FIG. 2, a process 200 for splitting or sharinga financial transaction is disclosed. However, those of skill in the artwill appreciate that the steps recited in any of the method or processdescriptions may be executed in any order and are not limited to theorder presented. It will be appreciated that the following descriptionmakes appropriate references not only to the steps depicted in FIG. 2but also to the various system components and/or logical representationsas described above with reference to FIG. 1.

Accordingly, in various embodiments, a group including a plurality oftransaction accounts and/or transaction account owners associated withor owing to a shared financial obligation may be created (e.g., by agroup “initiator” (step 202). A group may include one or more membersassociated with a plurality of transaction accounts. Further, a groupmay be created in response to receiving a request for group creation. Arequest for group creation may be received from a group member, such asa member who initiates a group (the group initiator). The initiator maybe an individual who incurs a financial obligation on behalf of a groupof individuals, each individual owing a proportion of the transaction tothe initiator. A request may further include information identifying oneor more requested group members (e.g., an email address, a telephonenumber, and the like). Thus, a request for group creation may betransmitted to one or more prospective or requested group members, eachof whom may choose to join the group and/or who must contribute to afinancial obligation incurred by an initiator, but owed by one or moreof the group (e.g., collectively, in proportion, equally, etc.). As usedherein, the financial obligation may be a legal obligation, a moralobligation, an ethical obligation, a friendly obligation, an agreementto the obligation, a non-binding obligation, a binding obligation, achanging obligation, a random obligation and/or the like.

Further, in various embodiments, one or more ROCs (e.g., ROC amounts,ROC dates, etc.) may be transmitted to one or more group members. TheseROCs may be associated with one or more transaction accounts of eachgroup member, and a group member may review ROCs to select one or moreROCs which should be included as part of a shared financial obligation.In various embodiments, and as discussed herein, a ROC and/or anotification associated with the ROC may be transmitted to a member inresponse to a transaction. Where this occurs, a group member mayassociate the ROC with a shared financial obligation in response toreceiving the ROC. Similarly, in various embodiments, one or more ROCs(and/or a percentage of a ROC owed by a group member and/or anotification associated with the ROCs may be communicated (e.g.,transmitted) to a group member (e.g., a web-client of the group member)in response to group creation and/or in response to a request by thegroup member to receive one or more ROCs (step 204) and/or a request byan initiator to transmit one or more ROCs to one or more group memberswho may collectively owe towards the ROC. A request by a group member toreceive one or more ROCs may comprise an action taken by the groupmember to load an application to a web-client 102. A request may furthercomprise an interaction by a group member with such an application.

Accordingly, payment settlement system 100 may receive a selection ofone or more ROCs for association with a shared financial obligation fromone or more group members. Similarly, payment settlement system 100 mayreceive amounts corresponding to payment methods not associated withROCs from group members. Further, in various embodiments, a paymentsettlement system 100 and/or a group initiator and/or a group member mayfurther determine a payment settlement proportion. For example, a groupmember may receive a payment settlement proportion, which may begenerated within payment settlement system 100 based upon one or moreROCs and/or received from one or more group members (step 206). Thus, apayment settlement system 100 may associate one or more ROCs (and/or oneor more amounts not associated with a ROC) selected by one or more groupmembers with a shared financial obligation.

A payment settlement system 100 may, in various embodiments, calculate asettlement amount associated with a shared financial obligation for eachgroup member as well (again, step 206). For example, a paymentsettlement system 100 may calculate a settlement amount for a groupmember by dividing an amount associated with a shared financialobligation equally and/or based upon a proportion provided by one ormore group members on each of the ROCs and other payment modes. Theproportion may be automatically allocated and/or provided by one or moregroup members and/or solely by the group initiator.

A payment settlement system 100 may communicate a settlement amountassociated with a group member to one or more group members (step 208).Further, where a settlement amount is not acceptable to one or moregroup members (e.g., where a member denies the settlement amount),payment settlement system 100 may, for example, re-calculate thesettlement amount or prompt the group members who are not accepting thesettlement amount to enter a proposed revised amount or a proportionassociated with the settlement amount (step 210). Payment settlementsystem 100 may further recalculate a settlement amount if the settlementamount is not acceptable to each member. Payment settlement system 100may continue to recalculate a settlement amount (e.g., based on thefactors discussed herein) until all or a portion of group members acceptthe settlement amount.

A payment settlement system 100 may allocate funds corresponding to oneor more settlement amounts to one or more appropriate group members(step 212). For instance, a payment settlement system 100 may determinethat a group member is associated with a positive settlement amount, inwhich case system 100 may allocate funds from one or more other groupmembers associated with negative settlement amounts. Thus, a sharedfinancial obligation may be allocated between a plurality of groupmembers in a short amount of time and in an equitable manner. Further,in various embodiments, a settlement amount may be allocated to or froma group member later in time than the time corresponding to the momentwhen the settlement amount is calculated. A group member (e.g., aninitiator) may establish such an allocation time, and/or the time may bea default time associated with the payment settlement system. Asettlement amount may also be allocated very soon after the calculationof the settlement amount. A settlement amount may also be transferred inresponse to a request by one or more group members.

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings and pictures, which show variousembodiments by way of illustration. While these various embodiments aredescribed in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the disclosure, it should be understood that other embodimentsmay be realized and that logical and mechanical changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, thedetailed description herein is presented for purposes of illustrationonly and not of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of themethod or process descriptions may be executed in any order and are notlimited to the order presented. Moreover, any of the functions or stepsmay be outsourced to or performed by one or more third parties.Furthermore, any reference to singular includes plural embodiments, andany reference to more than one component may include a singularembodiment.

Systems, methods and computer program products are provided. In thedetailed description herein, references to “various embodiments”, “oneembodiment”, “an embodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicatethat the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarilyinclude the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover,such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment.Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic isdescribed in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it iswithin the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature,structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodimentswhether or not explicitly described. After reading the description, itwill be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implementthe disclosure in alternative embodiments.

Any communication, transmission and/or channel discussed herein mayinclude any system or method for delivering content (e.g. data,information, metadata, etc.), and/or the content itself. The content maybe presented in any form or medium, and in various embodiments, thecontent may be delivered electronically and/or capable of beingpresented electronically. For example, a channel may comprise a websiteor device (e.g., Facebook, YOUTube, AppleTV, Pandora, xBox, SonyPlaystation), a uniform resource locator (“URL”), a document (e.g., aMicrosoft Word document, a Microsoft Excel document, an Adobe .pdfdocument, etc.), an “ebook,” an “emagazine,” an application ormicroapplication (as described herein), an SMS or other type of textmessage, an email, facebook, twitter, MMS and/or other type ofcommunication technology. In various embodiments, a channel may behosted or provided by a data partner. In various embodiments, thedistribution channel and/or may comprise at least one of a merchantwebsite, a social media website, affiliate or partner websites, anexternal vendor, a mobile device communication, social media networkand/or location based service. Distribution channels may include atleast one of a merchant website, a social media site, affiliate orpartner websites, an external vendor, and/or a mobile devicecommunication. Examples of social media sites include Facebook®,Foursquare®, Twitter®, MySpace®, LinkedIn®, and the like. Examples ofaffiliate or partner websites include American Express®, Groupon®,LivingSocial®, and the like. Moreover, examples of mobile devicecommunications include texting, email, and mobile applications forsmartphones.

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the below particular machines,and those hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination, as wouldbe appreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further, as isunambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: client data; merchant data; financial institution data;and/or like data useful in the operation of the system. As those skilledin the art will appreciate, user computer may include an operatingsystem (e.g., Windows NT, Windows 95/98/2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista,Windows 7, 0S2, UNIX, Linux, Solaris, MacOS, etc.) as well as variousconventional support software and drivers typically associated withcomputers.

The present system or any part(s) or function(s) thereof may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof and may beimplemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems.However, the manipulations performed by embodiments were often referredto in terms, such as matching or selecting, which are commonlyassociated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No suchcapability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases,in any of the operations described herein. Rather, the operations may bemachine operations. Useful machines for performing the variousembodiments include general purpose digital computers or similardevices.

In fact, in various embodiments, the embodiments are directed toward oneor more computer systems capable of carrying out the functionalitydescribed herein. The computer system includes one or more processors,such as processor. The processor is connected to a communicationinfrastructure (e.g., a communications bus, cross-over bar, or network).Various software embodiments are described in terms of this exemplarycomputer system. After reading this description, it will become apparentto a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement variousembodiments using other computer systems and/or architectures. Computersystem can include a display interface that forwards graphics, text, andother data from the communication infrastructure (or from a frame buffernot shown) for display on a display unit.

Computer system also includes a main memory, such as for example randomaccess memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory. Thesecondary memory may include, for example, a hard disk drive and/or aremovable storage drive, representing a floppy disk drive, a magnetictape drive, an optical disk drive, etc. The removable storage drivereads from and/or writes to a removable storage unit in a well-knownmanner. Removable storage unit represents a floppy disk, magnetic tape,optical disk, etc. which is read by and written to by removable storagedrive. As will be appreciated, the removable storage unit includes acomputer usable storage medium having stored therein computer softwareand/or data.

In various embodiments, secondary memory may include other similardevices for allowing computer programs or other instructions to beloaded into computer system. Such devices may include, for example, aremovable storage unit and an interface. Examples of such may include aprogram cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in videogame devices), a removable memory chip (such as an erasable programmableread only memory (EPROM), or programmable read only memory (PROM)) andassociated socket, and other removable storage units and interfaces,which allow software and data to be transferred from the removablestorage unit to computer system.

Computer system may also include a communications interface.Communications interface allows software and data to be transferredbetween computer system and external devices. Examples of communicationsinterface may include a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernetcard), a communications port, a Personal Computer Memory CardInternational Association (PCMCIA) slot and card, etc. Software and datatransferred via communications interface are in the form of signalswhich may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or other signalscapable of being received by communications interface. These signals areprovided to communications interface via a communications path (e.g.,channel). This channel carries signals and may be implemented usingwire, cable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, a radiofrequency (RF) link, wireless and other communications channels.

The terms “computer program medium” and “computer usable medium” areused to generally refer to media such as removable storage drive and ahard disk installed in hard disk drive. These computer program productsprovide software to computer system.

Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) arestored in main memory and/or secondary memory. Computer programs mayalso be received via communications interface. Such computer programs,when executed, enable the computer system to perform the features asdiscussed herein. In particular, the computer programs, when executed,enable the processor to perform the features of various embodiments.Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of thecomputer system.

In various embodiments, software may be stored in a computer programproduct and loaded into computer system using removable storage drive,hard disk drive or communications interface. The control logic(software), when executed by the processor, causes the processor toperform the functions of various embodiments as described herein. Invarious embodiments, hardware components such as application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardware statemachine so as to perform the functions described herein will be apparentto persons skilled in the relevant art(s).

In various embodiments, the server may include application servers (e.g.WEB SPHERE, WEB LOGIC, JBOSS). In various embodiments, the server mayinclude web servers (e.g. APACHE, IIS, GWS, SUN JAVA SYSTEM WEB SERVER).

In various embodiments, components, modules, and/or engines of system100 may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps. Micro-appsare typically deployed in the context of a mobile operating system,including for example, a Palm mobile operating system, a Windows mobileoperating system, an Android Operating System, Apple iOS, a Blackberryoperating system and the like. The micro-app may be configured toleverage the resources of the larger operating system and associatedhardware via a set of predetermined rules which govern the operations ofvarious operating systems and hardware resources. For example, where amicro-app desires to communicate with a device or network other than themobile device or mobile operating system, the micro-app may leverage thecommunication protocol of the operating system and associated devicehardware under the predetermined rules of the mobile operating system.Moreover, where the micro-app desires an input from a user, themicro-app may be configured to request a response from the operatingsystem which monitors various hardware components and then communicatesa detected input from the hardware to the micro-app.

Phrases and terms similar to an “item” may include any good, service,information, experience, data, content, access, rental, lease,contribution, account, credit, debit, benefit, right, reward, points,coupons, credits, monetary equivalent, anything of value, something ofminimal or no value, monetary value, non-monetary value and/or the like.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

Any databases discussed herein may include relational, hierarchical,graphical, or object-oriented structure and/or any other databaseconfigurations. Common database products that may be used to implementthe databases include DB2 by IBM (Armonk, N.Y.), various databaseproducts available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood Shores, Calif.),Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server by Microsoft Corporation(Redmond, Wash.), MySQL by MySQL AB (Uppsala, Sweden), or any othersuitable database product. Moreover, the databases may be organized inany suitable manner, for example, as data tables or lookup tables. Eachrecord may be a single file, a series of files, a linked series of datafields or any other data structure. Association of certain data may beaccomplished through any desired data association technique such asthose known or practiced in the art. For example, the association may beaccomplished either manually or automatically. Automatic associationtechniques may include, for example, a database search, a databasemerge, GREP, AGREP, SQL, using a key field in the tables to speedsearches, sequential searches through all the tables and files, sortingrecords in the file according to a known order to simplify lookup,and/or the like. The association step may be accomplished by a databasemerge function, for example, using a “key field” in pre-selecteddatabases or data sectors. Various database tuning steps arecontemplated to optimize database performance. For example, frequentlyused files such as indexes may be placed on separate file systems toreduce In/Out (“I/O”) bottlenecks.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. The data corresponding to the keyfield in each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of thesame type. However, data tables having similar, though not identical,data in the key fields may also be linked by using AGREP, for example.In accordance with one embodiment, any suitable data storage techniquemay be utilized to store data without a standard format. Data sets maybe stored using any suitable technique, including, for example, storingindividual files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing adomain whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposes one or moreelementary files containing one or more data sets; using data setsstored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system; data setsstored as records in a single file (including compression, SQLaccessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by firsttuple, etc.); Binary Large Object (BLOB); stored as ungrouped dataelements encoded using ISO/IEC 7816-6 data elements; stored as ungroupeddata elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) asin ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other proprietary techniques that mayinclude fractal compression methods, image compression methods, etc.

In one exemplary embodiment, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a BLOB. Thus, any binary information can be stored in astorage space associated with a data set. As discussed above, the binaryinformation may be stored on the financial transaction instrument orexternal to but affiliated with the financial transaction instrument.The BLOB method may store data sets as ungrouped data elements formattedas a block of binary via a fixed memory offset using either fixedstorage allocation, circular queue techniques, or best practices withrespect to memory management (e.g., paged memory, least recently used,etc.). By using BLOB methods, the ability to store various data setsthat have different formats facilitates the storage of data associatedwith the financial transaction instrument by multiple and unrelatedowners of the data sets. For example, a first data set which may bestored may be provided by a first party, a second data set which may bestored may be provided by an unrelated second party, and yet a thirddata set which may be stored, may be provided by an third partyunrelated to the first and second party. Each of these three exemplarydata sets may contain different information that is stored usingdifferent data storage formats and/or techniques. Further, each data setmay contain subsets of data that also may be distinct from othersubsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments, the data can be stored withoutregard to a common format. However, in one exemplary embodiment, thedata set (e.g., BLOB) may be annotated in a standard manner whenprovided for manipulating the data onto the financial transactioninstrument. The annotation may comprise a short header, trailer, orother appropriate indicator related to each data set that is configuredto convey information useful in managing the various data sets. Forexample, the annotation may be called a “condition header”, “header”,“trailer”, or “status”, herein, and may comprise an indication of thestatus of the data set or may include an identifier correlated to aspecific issuer or owner of the data. In one example, the first threebytes of each data set BLOB may be configured or configurable toindicate the status of that particular data set; e.g., LOADED,INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes ofdata may be used to indicate for example, the identity of the issuer,user, transaction/membership account identifier or the like. Each ofthese condition annotations are further discussed herein.

The data set annotation may also be used for other types of statusinformation as well as various other purposes. For example, the data setannotation may include security information establishing access levels.The access levels may, for example, be configured to permit only certainindividuals, levels of employees, companies, or other entities to accessdata sets, or to permit access to specific data sets based on thetransaction, merchant, issuer, user or the like. Furthermore, thesecurity information may restrict/permit only certain actions such asaccessing, modifying, and/or deleting data sets. In one example, thedata set annotation indicates that only the data set owner or the userare permitted to delete a data set, various identified users may bepermitted to access the data set for reading, and others are altogetherexcluded from accessing the data set. However, other access restrictionparameters may also be used allowing various entities to access a dataset with various permission levels as appropriate.

The data, including the header or trailer may be received by astand-alone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify, oraugment the data in accordance with the header or trailer. As such, inone embodiment, the header or trailer is not stored on the transactiondevice along with the associated issuer-owned data but instead theappropriate action may be taken by providing to the transactioninstrument user at the stand alone device, the appropriate option forthe action to be taken. The system may contemplate a data storagearrangement wherein the header or trailer, or header or trailer history,of the data is stored on the transaction instrument in relation to theappropriate data.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available—e.g., Twofish, RSA,El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, GPG (GnuPG), and symmetricand asymmetric cryptosystems.

The computing unit of the web-client may be further equipped with anInternet browser connected to the Internet or an intranet using standarddial-up, cable, DSL or any other Internet protocol known in the art.Transactions originating at a web-client may pass through a firewall inorder to prevent unauthorized access from users of other networks.Further, additional firewalls may be deployed between the varyingcomponents of CMS to further enhance security.

A firewall may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto protect CMS components and/or enterprise computing resources fromusers of other networks. Further, a firewall may be configured to limitor restrict access to various systems and components behind the firewallfor web-clients connecting through a web server. A firewall may residein varying configurations including Stateful Inspection, Proxy based,access control lists, and Packet Filtering among others. A firewall maybe integrated within a web server or any other CMS components or mayfurther reside as a separate entity. A firewall may implement networkaddress translation (“NAT”) and/or network address port translation(“NAPT”). A firewall may accommodate various tunneling protocols tofacilitate secure communications, such as those used in virtual privatenetworking. A firewall may implement a demilitarized zone (“DMZ”) tofacilitate communications with a public network such as the Internet. Afirewall may be integrated as software within an Internet server, anyother application server components or may reside within anothercomputing device or may take the form of a standalone hardwarecomponent.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Inone embodiment, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS),Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT webserver software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and a MicrosoftCommerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access or MicrosoftSQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL, lnterbase, etc., may be usedto provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant database managementsystem. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used in conjunctionwith a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and the Peri, PHP,and/or Python programming languages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, Java applets, JavaScript, activeserver pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensiblemarkup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), AJAX(Asynchronous Javascript And XML), helper applications, plug-ins, andthe like. A server may include a web service that receives a requestfrom a web server, the request including a URL(http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address (123.56.789.234).The web server retrieves the appropriate web pages and sends the data orapplications for the web pages to the IP address. Web services areapplications that are capable of interacting with other applicationsover a communications means, such as the internet. Web services aretypically based on standards or protocols such as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDLand UDDI. Web services methods are well known in the art, and arecovered in many standard texts. See, e.g., Alex Nghiem, IT Web Services:A Roadmap for the Enterprise (2003), hereby incorporated by reference.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WebSphereMQTM (formerly MQSeries) by IBM, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and thelike.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, whichmay carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, VBScript,Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL, Microsoft Active Server Pages, assembly,PERL, PHP, awk, Python, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, anyUNIX shell script, and extensible markup language (XML) with the variousalgorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures,objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, itshould be noted that the system may employ any number of conventionaltechniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, networkcontrol, and the like. Still further, the system could be used to detector prevent security issues with a client-side scripting language, suchas JavaScript, VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction ofcryptography and network security, see any of the following references:(1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,”by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,1995); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published byO'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network Security:Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall;all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

Each participant is equipped with a computing device in order tointeract with the system and facilitate online commerce transactions.The customer has a computing unit in the form of a personal computer,although other types of computing units may be used including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes, cellular telephones,touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchant has a computing unitimplemented in the form of a computer-server, although otherimplementations are contemplated by the system. The bank has a computingcenter shown as a main frame computer. However, the bank computingcenter may be implemented in other forms, such as a mini-computer, a PCserver, a network of computers located in the same of differentgeographic locations, or the like. Moreover, the system contemplates theuse, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, a processing apparatus executing upgraded software, astand-alone system, a distributed system, a method, a data processingsystem, a device for data processing, and/or a computer program product.Accordingly, any portion of the system or a module may take the form ofa processing apparatus executing code, an internet based embodiment, anentirely hardware embodiment, or an embodiment combining aspects of theinternet, software and hardware. Furthermore, the system may take theform of a computer program product on a computer-readable storage mediumhaving computer-readable program code means embodied in the storagemedium. Any suitable computer-readable storage medium may be utilized,including hard disks, CD-ROM, optical storage devices, magnetic storagedevices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser windows, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc. Practitionerswill appreciate that the illustrated steps described herein may comprisein any number of configurations including the use of windows, webpages,web forms, popup windows, prompts and the like. It should be furtherappreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated and described may becombined into single webpages and/or windows but have been expanded forthe sake of simplicity. In other cases, steps illustrated and describedas single process steps may be separated into multiple webpages and/orwindows but have been combined for simplicity.

The term “non-transitory” is to be understood to remove only propagatingtransitory signals per se from the claim scope and does not relinquishrights to all standard computer-readable media that are not onlypropagating transitory signals per se. Stated another way, the meaningof the term “non-transitory computer-readable medium” and“non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” should be construed toexclude only those types of transitory computer-readable media whichwere found in In Re Nuijten to fall outside the scope of patentablesubject matter under 35 U. S. C. § 101.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’or ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Although the disclosureincludes a method, it is contemplated that it may be embodied ascomputer program instructions on a tangible computer-readable carrier,such as a magnetic or optical memory or a magnetic or optical disk. Allstructural, chemical, and functional equivalents to the elements of theabove-described exemplary embodiments that are known to those ofordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by referenceand are intended to be encompassed by the present claims. Moreover, itis not necessary for a device or method to address each and everyproblem sought to be solved by the present disclosure, for it to beencompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component,or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated tothe public regardless of whether the element, component, or method stepis explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element herein is to beconstrued under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112 (f), unless the elementis expressly recited using the phrase “means for.” As used herein, theterms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does notinclude only those elements but may include other elements not expresslylisted or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

In yet another embodiment, any transponder, transponder-reader, and/ortransponder-reader system may be configured with a biometric securitysystem that may be used for providing biometrics as a secondary form ofidentification. The biometric security system may include a transponderand a reader communicating with the system. The biometric securitysystem also may include a biometric sensor that detects biometricsamples and a device for verifying biometric samples. The biometricsecurity system may be configured with one or more biometric scanners,processors and/or systems. A biometric system may include one or moretechnologies, or any portion thereof, such as, for example, recognitionof a biometric. As used herein, a biometric may include a user's voice,fingerprint, facial, ear, signature, vascular patterns, DNA sampling,hand geometry, sound, olfactory, keystroke/typing, iris, retinal or anyother biometric relating to recognition based upon any body part,function, system, attribute and/or other characteristic, or any portionthereof.

Phrases and terms similar to “account”, “account number”, “account code”or “consumer account” as used herein, may include any device, code(e.g., one or more of an authorization/access code, personalidentification number (“PIN”), Internet code, other identification code,and/or the like), number, letter, symbol, digital certificate, smartchip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer to access,interact with or communicate with the system. The account number mayoptionally be located on or associated with a rewards account, chargeaccount, credit account, debit account, prepaid account, telephone card,embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card,transponder, radio frequency card or an associated account.

The system may include or interface with any of the foregoing accounts,devices, and/or a transponder and reader (e.g. RFID reader) in RFcommunication with the transponder (which may include a fob), orcommunications between an initiator and a target enabled by near fieldcommunications (NFC). Typical devices may include, for example, a keyring, tag, card, cell phone, wristwatch or any such form capable ofbeing presented for interrogation. Moreover, the system, computing unitor device discussed herein may include a “pervasive computing device,”which may include a traditionally non-computerized device that isembedded with a computing unit. Examples may include watches, Internetenabled kitchen appliances, restaurant tables embedded with RF readers,wallets or purses with imbedded transponders, etc. Furthermore, a deviceor financial transaction instrument may have electronic andcommunications functionality enabled, for example, by: a network ofelectronic circuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto orwithin the transaction instrument (and typically referred to as a “smartcard”); a fob having a transponder and an RFID reader; and/or near fieldcommunication (NFC) technologies. For more information regarding NFC,refer to the following specifications all of which are incorporated byreference herein: ISO/IEC 18092/ECMA-340, Near Field CommunicationInterface and Protocol-1 (NFCIP-1); ISO/IEC 21481/ECMA-352, Near FieldCommunication Interface and Protocol-2 (NFCIP-2); and EMV 4.2 availableat http://www.emvco.com/default.aspx.

The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or opticaldevice capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to asecond device. A consumer account number may be, for example, asixteen-digit account number, although each credit provider has its ownnumbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used byAmerican Express. Each company's account numbers comply with thatcompany's standardized format such that the company using afifteen-digit format will generally use three-spaced sets of numbers, asrepresented by the number “0000 000000 00000”. The first five to sevendigits are reserved for processing purposes and identify the issuingbank, account type, etc. In this example, the last (fifteenth) digit isused as a sum check for the fifteen digit number. The intermediaryeight-to-eleven digits are used to uniquely identify the consumer. Amerchant account number may be, for example, any number or alpha-numericcharacters that identify a particular merchant for purposes of accountacceptance, account reconciliation, reporting, or the like.

In various embodiments, an account number may identify a consumer. Inaddition, in various embodiments, a consumer may be identified by avariety of identifiers, including, for example, an email address, atelephone number, a cookie id, a radio frequency identifier (RFID), abiometric, and the like.

Phrases and terms similar to “financial institution” or “transactionaccount issuer” may include any entity that offers transaction accountservices. Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” thefinancial institution may represent any type of bank, lender or othertype of account issuing institution, such as credit card companies, cardsponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract withfinancial institutions. It is further noted that other participants maybe involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “financial transaction instrument,”“transaction instrument” and/or the plural form of these terms may beused interchangeably throughout to refer to a financial instrument.

Phrases and terms similar to “internal data” may include any data acredit issuer possesses or acquires pertaining to a particular consumer.Internal data may be gathered before, during, or after a relationshipbetween the credit issuer and the transaction account holder (e.g., theconsumer or buyer). Such data may include consumer demographic data.Consumer demographic data includes any data pertaining to a consumer.Consumer demographic data may include consumer name, address, telephonenumber, email address, employer and social security number. Consumertransactional data is any data pertaining to the particular transactionsin which a consumer engages during any given time period. Consumertransactional data may include, for example, transaction amount,transaction time, transaction vendor/merchant, and transactionvendor/merchant location. Transaction vendor/merchant location maycontain a high degree of specificity to a vendor/merchant. For example,transaction vendor/merchant location may include a particular gasolinefiling station in a particular postal code located at a particular crosssection or address. Also, for example, transaction vendor/merchantlocation may include a particular web address, such as a UniformResource Locator (“URL”), an email address and/or an Internet Protocol(“IP”) address for a vendor/merchant. Transaction vendor/merchant andtransaction vendor/merchant location may be associated with a particularconsumer and further associated with sets of consumers. Consumer paymentdata includes any data pertaining to a consumer's history of paying debtobligations. Consumer payment data may include consumer payment dates,payment amounts, balance amount, and credit limit. Internal data mayfurther comprise records of consumer service calls, complaints, requestsfor credit line increases, questions, and comments. A record of aconsumer service call includes, for example, date of call, reason forcall, and any transcript or summary of the actual call.

Phrases similar to a “payment gateway” or “gateway” may also include anapplication service provider service that authorizes payments fore-businesses, online retailers, and/or traditional brick and mortarmerchants. The gateway may be the equivalent of a physical point of saleterminal located in most retail outlets. A payment gateway may protecttransaction account details by encrypting sensitive information, such astransaction account numbers, to ensure that information passes securelybetween the customer and the merchant and also between merchant andpayment processor.

1. A method comprising: receiving, by at least one computing device, arequest to establish a group of members from a group initiator, thegroup of members being associated with a transaction; identifying, bythe at least one computing device, an initiator transaction accountnumber for a transaction account of the group initiator; providing, bythe at least one computing device, a record of the transaction to arespective client device associated with members of the group ofmembers, the record comprising data representing a merchant, atransaction amount, and a transaction date; receiving, by the at leastone computing device, at least one response associated with thetransaction from the respective client device associated with themembers; generating, by the at least one computing device, a splitinstruction for the members of the group based upon the at least oneresponse; splitting, by the at least one computing device, thetransaction between the members of the group and the group initiator;and transmitting, by the at least one computing device and to therespective client device associated with members of the group ofmembers, a respective notification based at least in part on the splitinstruction.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the split instructionspecifies that the transaction is split between the group initiator andthe members of the group based at least in part on payment transactionscorresponding to one or more of the members.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the split instruction specifies that the transaction be splitproportionally between the group initiator and the members of the group.4. The method of claim 1, wherein the split instruction specifies thatthe transaction be split according to a percentage assigned to the groupinitiator and the members of the group toward a transaction amount. 5.The method of claim 4, wherein the split instruction specifies that thetransaction be split based at least in part on specified percentage. 6.The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning, by the at least onecomputing device, rewards associated with the transaction to the membersof the group based at least in part on the split instruction.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein a response from the members of the groupcomprises a rejection, and the method further comprises: recalculating asettlement amount for the group initiator and remaining members of thegroup; generating, by the at least one computing device, a new splitinstruction for the remaining members of the group based upon the atleast one response; splitting, by the at least one computing device, thetransaction between the remaining members of the group and the groupinitiator; and transmitting, by the at least one computing device and tothe respective client device associated with remaining members of thegroup of members, a new respective notification based at least in parton the new split instruction.
 8. A system comprising: at least onecomputing device; and a computer-readable instructions that, in responseto execution by the at least one computing device, cause the at leastone computing device to at least: receive a request to establish a groupof members from a group initiator, the group of members being associatedwith a transaction; identify an initiator transaction account number fora transaction account of the group initiator; provide a record of thetransaction to a respective client device associated with members of thegroup of members, the record comprising data representing a merchant, atransaction amount, and a transaction date; receive at least oneresponse associated with the transaction from the respective clientdevice associated with the members; generate a split instruction for themembers of the group based upon the at least one response; split thetransaction between the members of the group and the group initiator;and transmit, to the respective client device associated with members ofthe group of members, a respective notification based at least in parton the split instruction.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the splitinstruction specifies that the transaction is split between the groupinitiator and the members of the group based at least in part on paymenttransactions corresponding to one or more of the members.
 10. The systemof claim 8, wherein the split instruction specifies that the transactionbe split proportionally between the group initiator and the members ofthe group.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the split instructionspecifies that the transaction be split according to a percentageassigned to the group initiator and the members of the group toward atransaction amount.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the splitinstruction specifies that the transaction be split based at least inpart on specified percentage.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein theinstructions further cause the at least one computing device to at leastassign rewards associated with the transaction to the members of thegroup based at least in part on the split instruction.
 14. The system ofclaim 8, wherein a response from the members of the group comprises arejection, and the instructions further cause the at least one computingdevice to at least: recalculate a settlement amount for the groupinitiator and remaining members of the group; generate a new splitinstruction for the remaining members of the group based upon the atleast one response; split the transaction between the remaining membersof the group and the group initiator; and transmit, to the respectiveclient device associated with remaining members of the group of members,a new respective notification based at least in part on the new splitinstruction.
 15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodyinginstructions executable by at least one computing device, theinstructions, when executed, causing the at least one computing deviceto at least: receive a request to establish a group of members from agroup initiator, the group of members being associated with atransaction; identify an initiator transaction account number for atransaction account of the group initiator; provide a record of thetransaction to a respective client device associated with members of thegroup of members, the record comprising data representing a merchant, atransaction amount, and a transaction date; receive at least oneresponse associated with the transaction from the respective clientdevice associated with the members; generate a split instruction for themembers of the group based upon the at least one response; split thetransaction between the members of the group and the group initiator;and transmit, to the respective client device associated with members ofthe group of members, a respective notification based at least in parton the split instruction.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 15, wherein the split instruction specifies that thetransaction is split between the group initiator and the members of thegroup based at least in part on payment transactions corresponding toone or more of the members.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 15, wherein the split instruction specifies that thetransaction be split proportionally between the group initiator and themembers of the group.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 15, wherein the split instruction specifies that the transactionbe split according to a percentage assigned to the group initiator andthe members of the group toward a transaction amount.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein theinstructions further cause the at least one computing device to at leastassign rewards associated with the transaction to the members of thegroup based at least in part on the split instruction.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein a responsefrom the members of the group comprises a rejection, and theinstructions further cause the at least one computing device to atleast: recalculate a settlement amount for the group initiator andremaining members of the group; generate a new split instruction for theremaining members of the group based upon the at least one response;split the transaction between the remaining members of the group and thegroup initiator; and transmit, to the respective client deviceassociated with remaining members of the group of members, a newrespective notification based at least in part on the new splitinstruction.